


Black Hill Based on Starters

by littlesolo



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-09 09:45:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 40
Words: 19,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5535266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlesolo/pseuds/littlesolo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Black Hill one shots based on rp starters and prompts sent to me</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Unique Gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "I get the same things every year"

"I get the same things every year" says Natasha when Maria asks her what she wants for Christmas.  Clint gets her something for her utility belt.  Laura and Pepper always get her a first aid kit of some sort or something else medical related.  Bruce gets her books and Tony always upgrades or sets her up with the latest tech.  

It had started with just Clint and then Laura, then Pepper and Tony.  Bruce and Steve started after New York.  Steve would take her out for a meal around New Years.  It's hard to come up with something for Natasha, but Maria wants to get her something besides some generic or another thing to sit on a shelf somewhere.  

Natasha operates in a way that leaves no trace.  She's been all around the globe but there are no photos or trinkets.  No snow globes or postcards.  Natasha has a different sort of memory of those places.  One that goes with a name in her ledger.  

But that's not true of all the places she's been.  Dancing all night in Barcelona.  Waiting out a sand storm in the Sudan.  Maria finds a large journal with blank white pages and buys it, hoping it's what she's looking for.  It's nearly five days later when she decides what to do with it.  

Maria doesn't draw like Steve, but she does her best.  On one of the first pages she sketches out the image of a jeep.  Next to it she adds a cap and a few playing cards.  The drawings look too technical for her liking.  The only reason it doesn't look like a schematic for some set of mission plans is the addition of the hat and the cards.  But the memory is there.  She presses a flower from a bougainvillea and places it between another set of pages.  She hopes Nat won't find it too sappy.  

Natasha's face is unreadable when she gives it to her weeks later.  Maria is all but holding her breath and commanding herself not to fidget.  Then Natasha's arms are around her in a hug, the book still clutched in her hand.  A thank you is whispered and lips brush her cheek.  

Maria smiles and returns the embrace.  The second part of her gift will be helping Natasha create memories to add to the pages.  


	2. Still Remember How

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Oh my god! Are you okay?

It was a retrieval.  The team is just finishing packing things up because everything about this reads trap.  

She’s already called the others for back up because the energy readings here are off the charts.  But all of a sudden, everything is too quiet.  She’s giving the area a look over when she here’s the footsteps behind her.  Heavy boots, not SHIELD issue.  They’re outside, but with all stuff around here a gun fight will just get them all blown up.  No matter, she can hold her own in hand to hand.  

The first one comes at her, large and built, but Maria easily falls back into what Peggy taught her.  She dodges his first punch, his hand as big as a bear’s paw.  She blocks his next two blows and follows it up with a kick to his chest that sends him stumbling back.  She keeps moving and reads the man as he regains his footing and comes at her again.  Blocking another blow, she strikes his wind pipe.  Then her arm is around his neck from behind, bending him backwards and she quickly shifts and brings her elbow down on his throat.  

That’s one down.  

The next one comes at her and she hits him in the nose and he vomits as he falls.  She stomps on his face.  That’s two.  

The next three rush her and she’s ducking arms and spinning out of blows.  There’s an arm around her waist and she’s thrown into the side of one of the buildings.  She rolls out of it and coughs as she catches her breath.  Kicking out, she lands a blow behind someone’s knee and that buys her time to get back on her feet again.  She takes down three more.  She spins one’s arm behind his back and shoves him back at his buddy before there’s another one on her.  She gets in a double jab and a hook, cross, but then something that feels like wood hits her from behind and she’s on the ground.  Then come the boots and they’re kicking her and she has her arms up around her face and chest but she doesn’t last long.  

Then it’s nothing but black.  

“Oh my god!  Are you okay?”  Maria hears Natasha ask the question but doesn’t know if she can answer yet.  She hurts all over and doesn’t want to risk using her vocal cords in case they hurt too.  She hears Clint yelling for a medic and transport.  She sees Tony and Steve behind Natasha’s head as Natasha tries to see if she has a concussion.  She’d put money on yes.  

“Not bad Commander, five KO and one with a broken leg” compliments Clint as he takes in the scene around them.  Natasha glares at him, but Maria knows he’s just trying to get her to focus on something other than the pain.  Making her laugh hurts too much though since she’s sure she’s cracked if not broken a few ribs.  Before she can ask, Natasha assures her that they got what they came for.  She’d bought them enough time to get safely away.  

Later, in the hospital, Aunt Peggy pays her a visit.  

“Hear you did well, despite being out numbered” says Peggy as she leans on the rail at the end of her bed.  

“Gave ‘em hell” mutters Maria.  Her cheek and jaw bone are bruised but not broken.  Her back is one big bruise so she tries not move.  At all.  

“Spoke to Steve and Tony.  That lot was big” says Peggy, with an impressed raise of her eyebrows.  

“Like that ever stopped you” answers Maria with an attempt at a grin.  Natasha comes in with a smoothie in hand.  

“Enough shop talk.  We’re all about recovering and watching movies here” announces Natasha as she sets up a tablet on the attached table.  Maria smiles at her and relaxes as Natasha picks out some foreign mystery.  


	3. Accidental Arson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: I accidentally set your plant on fire and I felt super guilty so I went to the store to buy you another but they ran out and I didn’t know what other kind to get so I may or may not have bought you enough plants to fill a small greenhouse.

It was an accident, really.  Natasha had agreed to water the plant that Maria had gotten from Angie as a gift.  Angie’s theory was that if she had to come home to take care of the plant, then she could stay and have a meal and maybe rest for a while.  But right now Maria is off on a mission and Natasha is taking care of things.  

It doesn’t help things that the power is out on this block and the ones surrounding it.  Actually, that’s the whole reason any of this happened.  

Natasha lit a candle so that she could see in the apartment and not risk tripping over anything.  It wasn’t like she had expected to stumble over an ottoman, she was too skilled for that kind of stupid mistake.  No, she was anticipating Maria having some sort of security system inside that she’d have to bypass.  Maria’s call had been a quick plea since things had been happening fast and there hadn’t been time for codes or keys.  But there isn’t anything to bypass.  Maria apparently has a system from Stark in place but Nat must be already programed in because it doesn’t go off.  That’s interesting.  Aside from that, it’s just a deadbolt but at least it’s a good and secure make.  

The candle.  Right.  Only because she hadn’t known about the security system yet.  Maria’s apartment is much like her own.  That is, they prefer to call it minimalist rather than empty.  It’s really just another place to sleep.  Couch, bed, fridge.  That’s all you need.  And a plant apparently.  

She set the candle down on the counter so she could fill a glass to do what she came for.  Except the candle had been too close to the flower.  The little purple and white orchid had caught fire.  It went quick and Natasha wound up shoving the whole thing under the faucet and drowned whatever was left.  

Crap.  Well, she had to replace it.  Maria would notice, sure, but at least Angie’s plan would still be in effect, right?  Natasha went off in search of a green house. 

Turns out, a green house is a hard thing to come by in December.  An orchid is even harder to find.  Unless she wanted one FedEx-ed from Florida or the fucking Amazon rainforest, she was out of luck.  She’d have to get her another plant until she could get her hands on an orchid.  

* * *

Maria comes home a day early.  Her key smoothly slides into the lock and the biometric scan id’s her.  She drops her duffle bag next to the couch and lets out a sigh.  Then she notices.  Her apartment is a fucking plant nursery.  There’s a venus fly trap sitting on the counter.  It’s the only plant she recognizes off hand, but there are at least five other plants scattered around the room.  The hibiscus and bougainvillea shouldn’t be able to survive during the winter, but there they are.  On plant stands.  In her living room.  Maria pulls her cell out and hits speed dial.  

“Nat?”  

“ _Maria!  You’re home early!_ ” says a surprised assassin.  

“What happened to my apartment?”  

“ _Um…. well, short story, there was accidental arson involving your orchid.  So I replaced it._ ”  

“Accidental arson??”  That’s not a phrase you hear everyday.  

“ _Yes.  And I couldn’t decide what plant to pick ……so I got you a bunch_ ” explains Natasha.  

“I can see that.  Was the fly trap necessary?”

“ _It sounded cool.  Don’t forget to feed it_ ”

“Feed it?  Nat?  Natasha!”  Nothing but a dial tone.  Maria speed dials a second number.  “Yeah I’d like to have a pizza delivered.”  She eyes the fly trap.  “A large supreme, but make sure there’s sausage on it.”  


	4. Late Night Workings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: A is working overnight to meet a deadline, leaving B to sleep alone. Struggling to do this, B gets up during the night and goes to the next room where A is, snuggling up to sleep beside them while they work.

It isn’t the first time this has happened.  At least this time they are at home, in their brownstone.  Natasha has spent too many nights curled up on the couch in Maria’s office and it always leaves a crick in her back.  

There’s going to be a move on something big in a few days and Maria is scrutinizing every detail.  Most nights Natasha is too tired to mind, but tonight she misses Maria’s presence.  Misses her scent and her arms around her. It’s around three in the morning when she makes her way down the stairs, still wrapped in the the comforter.  Maria is sitting on the couch, papers and maps spread out on the coffee table and laptop propped up on her knees.  Natasha always finds the way Maria holds her pen between her teeth while she types cute.  Natasha makes her way towards the kitchen and makes a cup of tea.  Coming back to the couch, she sets it next to Maria’s hand.  Maria pauses long enough to reach for the mug but forgets to remove the pen.  It makes Natasha smirk sleepily.  

Settling next to her, Natasha snuggles into Maria’s side and against the back of the couch.  Fortunately, they’d bought this couch because it was comfortable to sleep on.  Maria’s fingers run through her hair briefly, and then she resumes working.  Natasha falls asleep to the sound of typing, not bothered by Maria’s occasional moving to reach for documents.  


	5. Rescue Scenario “P”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: [Text] COME GET ME COME GET ME COME GET ME!!!

They are at a political function when Natasha gets the text.  

MHill: COME GET ME COME GET ME COME GET ME!!!

Natasha is never without a weapon of some sort and on the rare occasion, she can improvise.  At the moment, she is concealing a gun, a knife, and a handful of taser discs.  Natasha also knows that Maria happens to be armed with her garter gun, so she should be able to hold her own, but Natasha doesn’t question the cry for help.  

Searching the crowd, Natasha finds Maria with an expression of forced politeness on her face.  Angling for a better view, Natasha spots the congressional aide that has trapped Maria.  She finds a glare crossing her face and tries to restrain the impulse to wing the idiot.  

Clint almost has a hold on Nat’s elbow, to prevent possible bloodshed, but misses by millimeters.  Nat slides up to Maria’s side, a pleasant mask firmly in place.  

“Maria! Hi!” says Natasha in faked surprise.  Maria turns to her and Natasha can see the barely contained anger simmering beneath her facade.  

“….so, maybe we can discuss this further over dinner?” asks the timid but persistent aide.  

“I’m afraid I have a prior engagement” says Maria carefully.  

“Another night then?” he asks.  Natasha rolls her eyes and tosses back a swallow of champagne.  

“I’m afraid not.  I have very little free time and-”  

“What free time she does have, we like to spend together” interjects Natasha.  

“I’m sorry?” he asks, not understanding.  Natasha resists the urge to hit him with her glass.  

“We’re a couple and with our demanding jobs, we don’t have a lot of time to ourselves” says Natasha, her fake smile beginning to strain.  

“Oh” says the aide quietly.  Then he thankfully shuffles away.  However, Maria doesn’t look any less distraught.  

“What?” asks Nat with another sip from her drink.  

“He works for quite possibly the most conservative Congressman out there.  And once he tells him, I can expect to be the subject of news articles, which Pepper can handle.  But it’ll make passing things that much more difficult” explains Maria.  

“What?  Like SHIELD doesn’t have a fund for buying a senator or something?”  Maria rolls her eyes.  

“Let’s just get out of here” replies Maria with a tilt of her head towards the door. 


	6. The Caring and Keeping of Liho

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: A how-to

Natasha was off on a mission.  That was normal, Maria had been the one to send her on it.  What was not normal was the black feline wandering Maria’s personal quarters on the carrier.  

Maria stares at the cat that stares back at her.  Natasha has snuck into her quarters before, but this was still unexpected.  Then she notices the notebook sitting on the small table.   _The Care and Keeping of Liho._  

What the hell?

 _1\.  Liho has her own cat food_ \- which Maria notices sitting next to the mini fridge - _but will eat just about anything.  She shouldn’t though because it makes her sick if she eats too much._  Maria notices the cat licking the leftovers of her pasta bowl from last night and lifts her away.  

 _2\.  Clean her litter box or she’ll find somewhere unpleasant to go instead._  How many things had Nat stashed in her place?  The litter box is siting at the end of the small couch.  

 _3\.  If you like your belongings hair free, brush her._  It’s at that moment that Liho gives a leap and lands on the small bed that Maria has in her moderate sized quarters.  Liho then makes her way up to her pillow and plops down.  That’s when Maria notices the fur that is also now covering her pillow.  

There are more sections to the notebook and Maria sits down to read it.  Far down, near the end, she spots the note.  

 _Liho is very clever and mischievous so make sure you can see her when you close the door._  

The door.  Shit.  

Liho is gone.  

Maria spends good portion of the afternoon trying to find her.  There are few things that Natasha openly cares about, and Liho is number one on the list.  It’s the last place that she thinks to look, but she finally knocks on Nick’s door.  

“Nick, have you-?”

That’s when she spots her on his desk.  Nick is rubbing Liho’s tummy, something the cat rarely lets even Natasha do.  

“Something you needed Hill?”  

“Just drop off the cat at my quarters when you’re done” sighs Maria.  Natasha would not believe this.  


	7. Freakish Accident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Where’d you get that black eye? Were you fighting somebody? 
> 
> *Based on true events and I hate you anon!

Natasha is walking through the lobby of the new Avengers building when she does a double take. There is Maria Hill and she’s sporting one hell of a shiner.

“Where’d you get that black eye? You forget to duck during a sparing session?” asks Natasha, falling into step with Maria. Maria shoots her a sideways glare. “Hockey related?” guesses Nat again. Maria remains tight lipped.

Kevin refuses to tell her and Sharon bites her lip to hide a smile but isn’t telling either. Because it’s Maria, Natasha isn’t letting this go.

“C'mon! You know you’ll tell me sooner or later” teases Natasha later in Maria’s office. Maria sighs.

“I sneezed.” Natasha blinks at her dumbly.

“What?”

“I was falling asleep listening to Aunt Angie, and was sitting on the floor. Anyway I had my chin propped up on my knee and sneezed” explains Maria. Natasha’s face stretches into a large grin. “Don’t” warns Maria.

“Don’t what? Laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of something that could only happen to you?” asks Nat, unable to keep from smiling. It’s the closest she can get to not outright laughing.

“Shut up.”

 


	8. Questionnaire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?

What?” asks Maria, unsure she heard correctly.  

“Have you ever cried because you were so happy?” asks Natasha again from over the pages of her magazine.  Maria just stares at her blankly before returning to her paperwork.  

“I’m pretty sure they make antidepressants for that” answers Maria flatly.  

“Or at least a decent antipsychotic might do the trick” agrees Natasha before moving on to the next question.  “Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?” continues Natasha.  She can feel Maria’s glare and it brings her up short.  “Seriously?”  

“What?  It’s not like you all are the most huggy people!  Besides it’s more about the hugging.  It releases anxiety.  Or at least it’s supposed to.  You all supply me with more than enough anxiety” explains Maria.  

“So…… is it a bear or what?” presses Natasha.  

“We are not discussing this”

 


	9. Lost Pet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Did you lose a cat?

Natasha is exhausted She had returned from a mission only to discover a message on her machine from the vet.  Liho was due for a visit.  

Two hours later, having wrangled a suddenly feral cat into a carrier and to the vet and back, Natasha had collapsed on the couch.  Well, she’d tried to bring her home.  Liho had managed to get out of her cage and squeeze out the back window on the way home.  Natasha wasn’t worried though, Liho had always been resourceful.  Then there was the fact that Natasha had no plans on moving from the couch for a good day or two.  

Hours later, the door bell rings.  Natasha groans and rolls her eyes.  The door bell continues to ring but Natasha refuses to move.  Her limbs feel like they all weigh a ton each and she has no energy or desire to coax them into moving.  

Then she hears the door open.  She still can’t bring herself to care.  

“Did you lose a cat?” asks Maria.  Natasha opens one eye to see Maria standing next to the couch and holding Liho.  

* _Meow_ *

“She’s an escapee” mutters Natasha, not bothering to move her head from the couch to make herself sound clearer.  Maria understands her though.  

“Escapee?”  

“She bailed after the vet” explains Natasha.  

“Awww” coos Maria as she scratches Liho behind her ears.  Maria nudges Natasha’s legs aside on the couch and sits down.    

“HEY!” complains Natasha.  

“Relax, I’ll rub behind your ears too” says Maria as she pats Natasha’s leg.  


	10. Home Sweet Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Sorry, let me move my stuff.

Neither is exactly sure when, but Natasha had started spending a lot of time at Maria’s apartment.  It’s not until they come back from a mission for some celebratory Thai take out.  It doesn’t really hit her even then.  

They walk in and Maria dumps her duffle by the door to the bedroom and makes her way to the kitchen for plates.  Natasha follows suit.  She’s stretching when she spots her favorite hoodie.  Technically, it’s Maria’s royal blue hoodie, but Natasha found it warm and comforting when Maria was away.  After dinner, she helps Maria do the dishes and realizes she has a mug for her morning coffee in the cupboard.  In the bathroom she has a toothbrush.  In Maria’s room, she sees her clothes all around the room where she had tossed them before.  Maria comes into her room running a hand through her hair.  

“Sorry, let me move my stuff” says an embarrassed Natasha.  She’d taken over Maria’s home.  

“Stop.  It’s what makes it home” says a sleepy Maria.  Natasha smiles as Maria flops into bed and climbs in beside her.  


	11. Feelings Are Troublesome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: A realizes they have feelings for someone.

Clint says she has a crush, but Natasha doesn’t have those.  Feelings are something Natasha handles better in context.  When she’s undercover and playing a mark, she can fake interest in whatever dimwitted thing they’re going on about.  She’s getting better at empathy.  Nostalgia isn’t something she’ll ever have, but she understands it’s a large part of Steve and tries to be supportive.  Envy is tricky.  She envies what Clint and Laura have, that support and understanding.  She knows she has a connection with Clint but she’s also seen those shared looks between him and Laura when they arrive.  Laura knows immediately, with just one glance, whether they need space, or the kids, or a shower, warm meal, and decent night’s sleep.  

But then there’s Maria Hill.  

Maria makes her nervous in a way that has her defaulting to one of her cover personas.  This always frustrates her since she’d like to just be herself with Maria, but not only is she still trying to figure out who that is, but she can’t seem to think around her.  Maria will ask a simple question like “are you holding up okay?” and it’ll throw her for a loop.  Because Maria actually wants an answer.  An honest answer, not just the default “yeah” she gives to Tony or Steve.  She’s the Black Widow, she’s always okay, and yet Maria seems to know that despite her masks, that isn’t always true.  

Maria is patient and is willing to wait and watch Natasha decide who she wants to be.  It’s a comfort and relief because it’s harder than most think.  She’s an Avenger, but should she want to pursue something with Maria, she wants it to be her.  Not one of her personas, her covers, who are more confident.  Because those aren’t who she is.  She isn’t a sex tease, a ditz with a gun, or an emotionless assassin.  

No, for the most part, Natasha Romanoff is confused and frustrated.  Thankfully, Maria doesn’t seem to mind waiting while she figures it out.  


	12. Technical Assistance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Help me, the computer is making sad beeps again. Make it happy, please.

* _Beep boop_ *

Maria tries another command.  

* _Beep boop_ *

Damn it.  She’d let Steve use her laptop for all of five minutes when they were in the field and now she can’t even access her files without an error message.  Maria isn’t a novice with computers but her skills haven’t gotten her past the stupid error message window.  

That’s when she spots Natasha walking past her office.  

“Nat!  Natasha!  Come here please?”  The Black Widow halts and raises an eyebrow but backtracks to Maria’s door.  

“Need something Commander?”

“Help me.  I let Steve use my laptop and now the computer is making sad beeps” explains Maria.  Natasha smirks and comes around the desk.  

“What’d he do, try and do a web search for something classified?” asks Natasha.  Maria’s brain falters for a moment.  Natasha’s pressed up against her back, reaching around her in the chair with her arms brushing hers as she works her magic.  

“A general file search I think.  A possible connection of some sort to the mission?  I can’t even tell if he found anything.  If he didn’t, maybe it’s just because he figured it worked like Google” mutters Maria.  Natasha lets out a huff as her first few tries result in the same sound.  She hums when she finally has success.  Maria lets out a relieved sigh.  

“No more sad beeps” teases Natasha.  

“Shut up.  I prefer sad beeps to Steve’s multiple apologies for wrecking it….again.” answers Maria with a grin.  “Thank you” she adds as Natasha gives her a waive as she leaves.  


	13. Par For the Course

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Waking up from a bad dream

Natasha had yet to settle down.  She and Maria were on location at an outpost.  They’d arrived five hours ago and Maria had been going none stop.  Natasha had checked the perimeter and set up safe guards but Maria was in charge of setting up communication and coordinating everything.  Their part of things wouldn’t happen for at least another day but since everything was coordinated through them there was a lot of prep work involved.  

Not now though.  Now it was early morning and Maria was sacked out on her bunk but Natasha just couldn’t get her mind to settle.  That sort of thing tended to happen when Maria was around, but it didn’t make it any less frustrating.  

Her attention is brought back to Maria when she notices her thrashing in her sheets.  Maria’s face is covered in sweat and she seems to be mumbling to herself.  Natasha isn’t sure what she’s supposed to do but as she’s getting up, Maria jerks awake.  

Natasha waits until Maria is fully awake before moving.  She’s familiar with the haze of still being caught in your dream and had accidentally attacked Clint numerous times.  Only after Maria meets her gaze does she move to get her a glass of water and a damp towel.  

“Bad one?” asks Natasha as she hands Maria the glass.  

“Par for the course” answers Maria as she takes a sip.  Natasha had heard the phrase before but hadn’t thought she’d hear it from Maria in regards to nightmares.  She knew they all had seen their share of horrors.  

“Want to talk?” offers Natasha.  

“Just….” starts Maria but she ends it with a shake of her head.  Natasha gives a mental shrug.  She starts to return to her bunk but then Maria continues.  “With the way recent missions have been going, I guess my mind is focused on the worst possible outcomes” continues Maria as she rubs at her eyes.  

“A necessary evil when you’re trying to plan against it” answers Natasha casually as she tosses her the damp towel.  Maria catches it with a small grateful smile.  

“You realize that you’re a large part of why Avengers missions turnout successful?  We figure out things on the move, but you’re the one who brings the things that we don’t even know we need” tries Natasha.  Reassurance isn’t her strong suit.  Her opinion is further supported by the fact that Maria doesn’t look convinced.  

“Like what?”  

“Dr. Cho.  Or the helicarrier loaded with lifeboats.  Or all the equipment needed to make this mission successful even in black out conditions.  You think ahead” explains Natasha.  

“Which is why dreams like this are par for the course.  Especially after HYDRA…”  Natasha isn’t sure what to make of that comment.  She thought they trusted each other.  

“That on your mind now?” Natasha can’t help herself and asks the question despite everything in her telling her not to.  

“No.  I trust you with my life.  With everything involved with this mission, this is the one part I have complete faith in.  It’s…. just everywhere else I’m worried about” confesses Maria.  It comforts and puts Natasha at ease though.  

“There’s a litter of kittens at the farm” says Natasha as she lays back down.  

“What?” asks Maria not following.  

“Six of them.  All different shades of white, black, brown and sometimes a bit of orange.  Lila and Cooper both decided to keep one, even one for Nate, but Laura wants to find them good homes.  With Nate still little, the last thing they need is kittens.  Apparently they climb everything.  I was talking to Clint on Skype and one tumbled off the bookcase and into his lap.”  Maria laughs and sets her glass and towel aside and scoots back down into her bunk.  Natasha continues talking about the kittens until she sees that Maria is back asleep.  Smiling to herself, she rolls over and closes her eyes.  


	14. Opinions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Just curious, what do you think of me?

Natasha had just gotten into an argument with Steve.  She had made a comment in passing and Steve had sighed and given her a pitying look.  She’s used to it being like this with Steve every once and a while.  Where Bucky Barnes would magically be the guy he knew during the war and his whole time as the Winter Soldier would be forgotten.  It wasn’t as if Natasha had defected and become one of SHIELD’s best and then an Avenger or anything.  

She tries to not let it, but it still bugs her.  It’s that little voice in the back of her head that wonders if Steve is the only one who sees her that way.  She knows Clint and Tony don’t, but what about Thor, Phil, Sam.  Her ledger is her own form of penance but she wonders if she still has to continue to prove herself.  

She’s currently sitting in the lounge and turns to see Maria working at a nearby table.  She asks without thinking.  

“Just curious, what do you think of me?”  She hadn’t meant to really ask the question aloud but Maria turns to her.  She and Maria simply look at each other for a moment, as if neither can decide if they really want to answer.  

“I think you’re brave” says Maria finally.  Natasha scoffs.  

“That’s just part of being an Avenger.”  

“No.  You rush in without hesitation every time, whether it’s aliens, robots, maniacs, or a mixture of all of the above.”  

“So do the armed forces.  You’re former Army, you know that” counters Natasha.  

“True, but I wasn’t referring to being brave as an Avenger.  I meant…”  Maria turns to face her better in her chair.  “You remade yourself.  It’s one thing to defect and follow orders.  You’ve been following orders your whole life-”  

“Is this leading to how I was brave to defect?  Because that wasn’t bravery, that was exhaustion” interjects Natasha.  

“And making friends?  Becoming Auntie Nat?  It’s not something you ever pictured for yourself, is it?  But it’s who you are now.”  

“I’m still figuring out who I am” cautions Natasha.  

“Yeah, but whoever you are, you will still be family to Clint and his kids Auntie Nat.  And you’ll still be my friend too” assures Maria.  

“And if I cut all ties and go into hiding on some secluded island?” asks Natasha. 

“Then I hope I can crash on your couch when I follow soon after.  You help keep me sane around here, you know” says Maria with a smirk.  


	15. It’s a Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: I have been trying to come up with a good opening line for a while and keep failing.

Maria has been in her office all day.  At some point Natasha and Clint had returned from their latest mission, because Natasha had been sitting in the hall area for a while now.  Normally, Maria wouldn’t mind, but she couldn’t help but notice that Natasha had been sitting on one of the couches and staring blankly out the window for hours now.  After about three hours though, Maria can’t help herself and walks over to her side.  

“I have been trying to come up with a good opening line for a while and keep failing” she says by way of announcement as she sits down next to her.  

“What was the first one you thought of?” asks Natasha without moving her gaze.  

“Penny for your thoughts?” answers Maria with a shrug.  Natasha opens her mouth but then closes it again.  

“Today was just a bad one” she says with a shake of her head and a shrug.  “We got what we came for, but there were too many casualties.  Some of the new supervisory agents are still too green for how fast paced things happen in the field.  They’re still consulting reg and handbooks as if they have the answers there.”  Maria knows this.  Phil had promoted various agents across the board.  She understood he was trying to help but there was more to agents than what was in their file.  Reciting guidelines forwards and backwards didn’t do you any good if you froze in a fire fight.  

The hard part was what to do now and was probably why Natasha had been gazing out the window all afternoon.  In terms of the mission, there was nothing to be done.  There were reports to write but that wouldn’t bring people back.  There’s only one thing to do really.  

“Care to join me for a drink?  Maybe a bite to eat too?” offers Maria.  Natasha turns to her and gives a small smile.  

“Sure.”  


	16. To the New Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: My life is a mess and you aren’t helping

It’s Stark’s usual end of the year shindig.  Everyone is there and in good spirits. Steve is back from his search and Bruce is back from seclusion.  It’s all a bit much for Natasha this year.  Clint has wanted her to do something about her… feelings for Maria since Thanksgiving.  He’d literally sulked when because she’d let the infestation of mistletoe at the Tower go to waste.  She’d discussed it a bit with Laura but she had yet to act on anything.  

There was a steady pounding right behind her eyes that the alcohol wasn’t helping dull and had her venturing out to the roof.  

“What are you doing out here on the roof? The party’s inside.”  Natasha turns to see Maria coming up the steps.  

“Too much going on in there” says Natasha as she swirls the drink in her glass. 

“Ah” answers Maria in a knowing tone but doesn’t press the issue.  Natasha is grateful for that.  She sits down on one of the benches and looks to Maria to join her.  There’s Bruce looking to apologize yet again and Steve with his false smile and his mind elsewhere.  Natasha realizes that while the silence is comfortable, she should probably say something.  

“You?”  

“I’ve had more than my fair share of smiles and glad handing at all the PR and political functions.  I’d rather not insult the people I regard as friends with a mask.  A new year is just a change in date” answers Maria.  Natasha tilts her head in agreement.  Resolutions are nice, but those are more for regular people.  Try adhering to a healthier diet when all you have is the jerky and bottled water in your pack.  Some might call her a pessimist, but Natasha is Russian and knows better.  She, like Maria, is a realist.  

“Anything I can help with?” offers Maria.  Natasha gives a small laugh and Maria raises an eyebrow at her.  

“My life is a mess and you aren’t helping” says Natasha with a smirk.  

“Me?  What have I done?” asks Maria.  Natasha shakes her head.  

“Nothing.  You’re just… here.  You’re my… friend.”  She sighs.  She’s not explaining it well and knows it.  Friend seems like the wrong word but anything else seems too forward.  To hell with it.  

“So, in this new year… would you be interested in…. going on a date with me?” asks Natasha.  She takes a drink to help with her nerves.  Maria hides a grin behind her champagne glass and gives Natasha a sideways glance.  

“Well, the new year is only two hours away and I’m sure there are some places to eat that are open” answers Maria.  

“To the new year then” says Natasha, extending her glass to knock it against Maria’s.  

“Can’t wait.”  


	17. Nightmare Realism

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Your OTP are good roommates. They sleep down the hall from each other until one night A knocks on B’s door and shyly asks if they can share a bed for the night because they had a dream B died. *With a horror opener please?

_Commander, come in  
Commander can you read me?_

Maria awakens to a voice in her ear.  “Commander Hill here” she responds but the chatter doesn’t change.  The comms must not be working.  Maria pushes herself up into sitting position with a groan.  She hisses as her hand rakes against broken glass.  Looking up, she sees the window she must have been thrown through.  Her head hurts and there’s a ache through her body.  Shaking her head clear, she searches the floor for her weapon.  

That’s when she sees the blood trail.  

Ready for a fight, Maria carefully follows it.  The trail goes around the corner and into the room she’d been thrown out of.  Then there’s Natasha in the middle of the floor.  The tube lights above flicker and hum but there’s no mistake as to who it is.  There’s blood, too much blood, coming from her chest, abdomen, and trickling out the side of her mouth.  Maria collapses by her side, her own pain forgotten, because this can’t be happening.  Natasha who is smart and strong and skilled doesn’t die like this.  Not with Maria just in the other room unconscious and unable to help.  She tries shaking her but knows it’s no use, her eyes are open and just as dead as the rest of her.  Maria presses her hands over two of the larger wounds.  She hears the sound of boots coming towards her but doesn’t care, she’s not leaving Natasha like this.  The door behind her slams open-

\- and Maria jerks awake.  

She’s gasping for air and soaked in a sweat.  She goes to pull back the sheets and notices her hand is shaking.  She takes in her surroundings while she tries to get her heart rate back to normal.  She’s in one of the guest rooms of Stark Tower.  It had all felt so real.  

Pushing back the sheets, Maria leaves her room and goes toward the elevator.  In the elevator she wraps her arms around herself.  She knows this is the only way she’ll get any rest.  She has to be sure, has to be certain that it was just a dream.  Natasha may think she’s an idiot but it’s the only way to get rid of this feeling of dread.  She knocks on the door and moments later hears the lock being thrown back.  

“It’s late- Hey... you okay?” asks Natasha, but Maria is busy looking her up and down for signs of injury.  “Maria?” asks Natasha again, this time putting a hand on her shoulder.  Maria’s head jerks up to meet her gaze.  

“You’re alive.  You’re okay” whispers Maria as she lets out a deep breath.  Natasha regards her for a moment before opening her door further.  

“C’mon, you’re sleeping here tonight” announces Nat.  Maria is too tired to argue.  Too tired to notice that the pajamas Natasha hands her are actually hers, stolen at one point.  

In clean and dry sheets, Maria feels her body begin to relax.  She doesn’t fully relax though until she feels Natasha settle in next to her.  She doesn’t hesitate to curl herself around the red head, her heartbeat reassuring.  Shortly after, she falls into a peaceful sleep free of nightmares.  


	18. Average Press Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Bodyguard AU

A threat had been made against Maria and while Maria doesn’t think it’s anything, the rest of them are taking it very seriously.  

Steve wanted Maria under constant protection, which Maria balked at.  Clint suggests Natasha, avoiding Nat’s glare, since Nat can blend in a lot easier than Captain America.  It does nothing to help with Natasha’s feelings for the Commander but it does seem to be the best course of action.  

Unfortunately, this threat also comes after an attack announcement from HYDRA and a raid at some defunct factory.  Commander Hill is front and center of it all, trying to figure out what happened and answering the demanding media and press.  Natasha actually has to pick up her pace to keep up.  

In front of the cameras and reporters, Maria is cool and collected.  Following the hearings, everyone in the media addresses her as Commander so at least there’s that.  The only down side being that with the title, most assume she has instant answers.  

“At this point in time, we are trying to put everything together just like everyone else” says Maria in front of the cameras.  Natasha doesn’t like this.  There are too many bright and blinding lights.  She can only see faint outlines from the endless rows of reporters.  She’s blind to any possible sniper or close shooter.  The best she can do is stay close to Maria’s side and attempt to body block a shot if there is one.  Maria answers the repeated questions and demands for answers as best she can.  What none of these people seem to understand is that every moment Maria spends out here, is a moment she could spend figuring out what happened.  

They leave the press conference and Maria makes her way back to the labs.  They’ve pulled footage from traffic cameras, security cameras, and all the phones of people near and at the scene.  The scientists are trying to piece together a time line of sorts at to what happened.  So far, all anyone seems to agree on is an explosion and the sound of gunfire but no one can be sure which came first.  

“Show me what we have” barks Maria and suddenly the monitors in front of them are playing video compiled from various sources.  Maria spots someone in a military uniform walking just at the edge of frame.  Natasha nearly missed him with how fast the video is playing and how he carefully mingles and tries to keep out of sight.  “There!  Right there!  Pause it.  Go back.  Screenshot the sequence where we see the front of his uniform.  Alright, now compile those together in an overlay and see if we can come up with a name” orders Maria.  While they scramble to do as she’s asked, Natasha notices Maria hitting a switch on her tablet.  

“Ma’am, we’ve got the name Crenshaw”  
“Run it against the nearest military base” orders someone.    
“We’ve lost our cell signal Ma’am.”  

“Run it against the workers that were supposed to be on duty first.  Also, all phone calls go through me.  The media will take the name and run, but I want to have this verified before we give them anything.  No leaks” announces Maria.  Natasha watches as Maria runs a hand through her now short hair.  In her left hand, she spins her pen stylus over and over while she tries to think.  

Natasha isn’t used to seeing things from this end.  Usually she’s on a jet or in the field waiting to be given the order to go.  She never thought Maria’s job was easy, but Maria’s going through the various footage feeds on her tablet and glancing at the larger monitors when she needs a better look at something.  The footage goes by so fast and various feeds all at once and it gives Natasha the beginnings of a headache.  But that’s not all Maria’s monitoring.  Glancing over her shoulder, Natasha notes that Maria is reviewing radio chatter, news feeds, police radios.  She has the radio feeds alternating and looking for keywords and running into her headset.  

Natasha looks around the room and gauges all the faces surrounding them.  They aren’t on the bridge of a carrier, but the layout is pretty much the same.  With large monitors in front, there are two rows of scientists and technicians going through all the data they have as well as being fed data that is still being recovered from the scene.  Everyone there looks focused as well as nervous.  With the threat that HYDRA issued, they know they’re working against a clock and there’s no telling when or where the next attack will be.  Unless they find something.  Natasha watches for anyone focusing on Maria.  They’ve had sleepers before and there’s no way to know that they still don’t.   

One of the junior agents reluctantly comes up to tell Maria that there’s a demand for an update by the media.  Maria curses but takes a deep breath and pinches at her nose.  The down side to working at the downtown media office is that the reporters know where to find you.  

“Commander?  The name comes back to a guard that was supposed to be on duty but was reported missing by his wife two days ago” calls a voice that has Maria spinning to find out more.  

“HYDRA was already there in place” says Maria, both to the room and to herself.  

“But why stay?  We don’t have a clear shot, but they stay even after the explosion” says another agent.  

“Recruiting video?  To make sure the job was carried out?  A contingency in case something went wrong?  Who knows.  What we need to do now is find him.  Where are the ones who were closest?” asks Maria.  

“Hospital” comes an immediate answer.  

“Anyone able to talk?”

“No word yet.  Severe burns for three and two more with hearing loss…cuts and scrapes…”  Cuts and scrapes for a field agent is no big deal, but for a civilian it could mean something more serious.  Natasha has a bad feeling in her gut.  Maria’s just about to give the press the update that they’re following leads when Natasha catches her arm.  

“This feels too much like a trap to me.  You know HYDRA is monitoring the news footage too” warns Natasha.  Maria raises an eyebrow and smirks at her.  

“Caught that too?  I know.  HYDRA’s limiting the information we have to pull me or any other SHIELD personnel in front of the cameras for a statement.  Their man was probably a plant.  He was too careful.  Careful enough to keep his face hidden but not the name on his uniform?  We’re not that lucky.”  

“So you know a sniper could be waiting for you out there for you right now.  And with all those cameras and flashes, we won’t see it coming in time” explains Natasha.  She feels like Maria knows something she doesn’t though.  

“A single person target isn’t a message-”

“You were- _are_ \- second in command, that’s a pretty big target” argues Natasha.  

“That may be, but I have a feeling that an explosion would work better for them.  I’ve had some of the agents looking into the backgrounds of all the reporters and checking the area for possible bomb threats.”  Maria always has something up her sleeve.  

The area has been checked three times and declared clear after each sweep and only then will Natasha let Maria go out to face the media.  They walk out together, side by side.  They see it at the same time.  A new van coming around the block.  It all happens so fast.  The van blows through the road blocks and is almost in front of them when it explodes.  

Maria had yelled for everyone to get clear the moment she spotted it and people had scattered.  Still, there are screams.  Screams of horror, screams of pain, screams of distress.  What Natasha doesn’t miss is how as she goes to try and cover Maria, Maria is pulling her around herself to keep her out of harms way.  That’s not the way body guard duty works.  They can feel the wave of heat blow against them and then Natasha gets her bearings back.  She lands a few feet away from Maria and is scrambling to pull her back behind some sort of cover but Maria has her gun out and is scanning for attackers.  There happen to be four who emerge from the crowd.  Cursing, Natasha pulls her gun and together they make quick work of the would be attackers before anyone else can be hurt.  

Once she’s sure the area is clear of attackers, Natasha drags Maria inside.  Maria doesn’t pause despite Natasha’s tug at her arm for a word.  

“I want all the footage pulled from the cameras outside- security and media even camera phones.  I want that van id’d and everything we can get about it in the next five minutes” she barks.  Then she turns back to Natasha.  

“You _know_ how protective details work Commander.   _You_ are the target not me.  I can take care of myself , but I can’t take care of you if you move me out of the way” growls Natasha.  

“Your job is to protect me from attack.  We both saw that van.  There was no preventing that explosion but we managed to get as many people clear as possible.  The would be attackers, you and I took care of.  You did your job.  I know you’re capable of looking after yourself, but you are also one of my operatives and my friend and I’m not letting anything happen to you either” says Maria in a soft voice so that only Natasha can hear.  

Through the van’s paperwork they find the other members of the small HYDRA cell and send in two STRIKE teams just in case they’re holding onto something that they planned to use later.  Things are resolved for the time being and Maria is taking Natasha out for a thank you dinner and drinks.  


	19. Post poned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Person A was waiting for Person B to arrive for their first date, and when Person B did not come, Person A was afraid to get stood up and was about to leave when Person A got a phone call from an unknown number and answered it. It was Person B, apologizing. Person B was in the emergency at the hospital for various stupid reasons. Person A ordered some takeout and arrived at the hospital and spent together eating the takeout in the hospital room as their first official date.

This was stupid.  

Natasha is aware that when Maria was working up the ranks as an agent, some of the other agents would ask her out on a date as a dare or part of a prank.  She just hadn’t expected Maria to do the same.  

Well, technically, Natasha had done the asking, but she’d been sitting in the restaurant for an hour and fifteen minutes waiting for Maria Hill to show.  She’d even dressed up for the occasion.  But what the hell, it’s not like the Black Widow has feelings, right?  Whatever.  Natasha gathers her purse and leaves.  

She’s walking back to her place when her phone begins to ring.  She has half a mind to let it ring but it could be work, so she answers.  

“ _Nat?_ ”  Kevin Donnelly’s voice wasn’t the one she was expecting but it was a welcome diversion from her night.  

“Kevin?  You need something?”

“ _Ah… well.  It was just supposed to be a quick thing at Mom’s…_ ” starts Kevin.  She can practically see him running a hand through his dirty blonde hair as he rambles.  

“Kevin…” Natasha sighs.  

“ _We were moving a couch at Mom’s.  We were loading the old one into the truck when someone side swiped the car.  Anyway, ah… we’re at the hospital now…_ ”  That makes Natasha stop walking.  

“Wait, what?  The hospital?”  

“ _Yeah, she was helping me load it and when the car was hit she got knocked pretty bad… Anyway, I know you two had something to do tonight, she mentioned she had to go home and change.  She didn’t want to be late… but ah…_ ”

“Kevin, which hospital?” sighs Natasha.  She should have known Maria wouldn’t stand her up.  Not without a good reason.  Actually, now that she thinks about it, Kevin must have had to wrestle Maria down to the hospital otherwise Maria would have limped her way to dinner.  

“ _St. Mary’s.  She’s kicking me out now but I just wanted to let you know_ ” answers Kevin.  

“Wait.  Has she eaten yet?  Okay, thanks Kev.”  

* * *

 

Following a stop at a good Chinese place, Natasha makes her way over to the hospital.  She’s then directed to the area where Maria is waiting to be discharged.  Nat spots Maria all bandaged and grumpy, sitting on a gurney.  

 “Hope you’re hungry” announces Natasha.  Maria turns at the sound of her voice.  

“Natasha, I am so sorry-” starts Maria but Natasha waves it off.  

“Kevin explained.  How are you doing?” she asks with a nod toward Maria’s injuries.  

“I feel like one big bruise.  Car knocked the truck pretty hard and I took a rough tumble, but it’s nothing more than some nasty scrapes” Maria explains with a shrug… followed by a poorly hidden wince.  

“I can see that” replies Nat as she brushes her fingers down Maria’s arm and down towards her knee.  Both are bandaged from where Maria had slid against against the street, and scraped raw.  “Brought the good stuff” says Natasha as she begins setting out the food.  

“Egg rolls?” asks Maria, perking up a bit and scooting forward.  

“Of course” assures Natasha.  “So when do you get out of here?”  

“Ah, some traffic accident or something happened and they rushed to take care of it so my paperwork is on pause I guess.”  

“Well, when you are released, you’re staying with me if Sharon isn’t coming to look after you tonight” announces Natasha.  

“I don’t need anyone looking after me” protests Maria.  

“Can you bend?  I bet you can’t even untie your shoes” says Natasha with a smirk.  Maria stares at her feet for a moment.  

“Fine.”  


	20. Recovery Started

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Person A undergoing physical/mental torture that essentially leaves them broken and as the shell of the person they once were before. Person B saves them and cares for them, doing everything/anything in their power to bring some–any–semblance of their old self back. The day Person A cracks a smile, Person B nearly has a breakdown.

Maria had been taken but they’d gotten her back.  

There had been an ambush and HYDRA had taken Maria.  Natasha hadn’t slept, had barely taken time to eat while they searched for her.  They find her in a cell in a HYDRA lab.  Maria is beaten and battered, but what scares Natasha most is the fact that even after they get her out of there, back to her ship, Maria still hasn’t spoken a word.  

They treat her wounds.  Natasha figures that Maria would feel safest on the carrier because it’s her ship.  She knows every part of it and everyone who works there.  There’s the added fact that in the air, Natasha hopes Maria feels a bit safer.  Less vulnerable than she would be in her apartment where anyone could be walking outside, the constant sound of traffic and everyday business.  Maybe that’s not as comforting.  Because that went on while she was being held prisoner and tortured.  Life just…went on.  

Not for everyone though.  Personally, Natasha felt her world come to a stand still when Clint told her Maria had been captured.  Maria wouldn’t let herself be taken without a fight.  She was smart, a quick thinker, and strategic.  There had been so much blood at the abduction site but then they find the body of one of the attackers.  There looks to be a rash where Maria had wrapped the seatbelt around his neck and pulled along with multiple stab wounds from the pen she’d had in her pocket.  He’d bled out.  Natasha took some comfort in that but it didn’t get them any closer to her.  

Tony reviews the footage.  Maria had been kept where they experimented on people.  All of it documented for HYDRA’s research.  She’d watched as one man, after being injected with something, beat his head against the bars of his cell until he’d killed himself.  There were video recordings of at least four other individuals.  

It’s…. different being on this side of things.  Natasha finds herself tongue tied.  She knows what it is to torture someone.  To break them by having them watch others die.   _Second in Command, but you couldn’t help these poor souls could you?  What can you do for them from that cell?_  That sort of thing.  The ones that are taken, they usually try to put out of their mind.  They tell themselves that they’d gotten there too late, that at least their death will bring them that much closer to HYDRA and what they’re up to.  

Natasha had been conditioned to not respond to that type of thing.  It’s one of the things that have the other agents calling her heartless.  That doesn’t matter though.  What matters is Maria.  Natasha has Sharon look at Maria’s wounds because she trusts her.  Anymore than three other people in the small room and Maria starts to panic so Natasha gets her away from the medical equipment.  

It’s hard.  In this particular instance, Natasha can guess pretty much exactly what happened, but it doesn’t help her any with Maria’s recovery.  She realizes a bit later, that it’s not the number of people in the room, but the fact that she is subject of discussion.  It’s not the first time Maria has been attacked or been in the thick of things.  She was Army before she was SHIELD and had her fair share of close shaves.  This is different somehow but Nat can’t put her finger on it.  

Kevin and Sharon say that she should be there for her, and she’s trying but she isn’t sure what to do.  Sharon’s Mom brings over food and so does Angie so they’re stocked for at least the next month or so.  There’s only one thing Natasha can really think to do.  She leaves for a bit, leaving Sharon with her, and comes back with Liho.  Liho trots right over to Maria and jumps on her lap.  Maria pets her while she gazes out the window.  It seems to help.  Maria speaks for the first time two days later and it feels like Natasha can breathe again.  

“No more being passive.  HYDRA is sloppy with somethings but OCD when it comes to backing up their work.  Has to be on a server somewhere.”  Natasha crouches down in front of her.  

“You sure you’re ready for this?  If you are we’ll go, but if you need some time still, Liho and I aren’t going anywhere.”  

“I think working will help me sleep… will... help.  All this sitting and waiting…. it just feels like a cell of a different kind.  We’ve run into HYDRA a few times and Phil has been on their tail.  Steve has to have had a few run ins in his search for Barnes.  We look at it all.  Maybe then we’ll see something we’ve missed.  Get Tony on tracking the server if he isn’t already.”  

Maria will collapse eventually.  She’ll work herself past exhaustion.  Now she has faces to go with the experiments they knew were being done.  They aren’t just names on a page or screen anymore.  But when it hits her, when the pain killers wear off and she can’t ignore the turmoil in her head anymore, Natasha will be there in whatever way she needs her.  She squeezes Maria’s hand and hands her her jacket and they’re off.  


	21. Sharing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: The amount of times we indirectly kiss via sharing food and drinks probably isn’t good for my emotional health.

It’s Laura who brings it to Clint’s attention and then he can’t stop seeing it.  

Laura motioned over to Maria, who was working at the breakfast table and drinking her coffee.  Natasha had come around behind her to peek over her shoulder.  Maria had been holding the mug in midair and Natasha grabbed it and taken a sip.  Then given a grimace.  

“God that’s strong.”  

“Well, I need something to get through all this paperwork.”  

“Aw, it that tough?  Feel bad for all the pages you make me and Clint fill out?”  

“Nope.  But to keep Nate off the radar means a lot of things that somehow can’t be traced.  It’s complicated.  And requires strong coffee” explains Maria as she takes her cup back.  

It happens with meals back at base.  Maria drops in to have lunch with them only to be called away, but not before stealing huge bite of Nat’s burger.  She’s wiping ketchup from the corner of her mouth as she sprints away and Natasha doesn’t seem to care.  The same woman who nearly breaks his hand when he tries to steal a fry.  

They share popcorn on movie night, trail mix in Maria’s office, when they spar Maria doesn’t mind Nat taking sips from her water bottle.  

It’s cute.  But Clint knows better than to comment on it.  He feels like a big brother watching his younger sister figure things out.  He also knows better than to mess with it.  Steve tries to snag a handful of chips from her bowl and Clint is so glad that the glare isn’t aimed at him because it’s positively frightening.  

There are shared milkshakes and grapes.  That sort of thing, along with teasing and laughing and both women looking more relaxed than he’s ever seen them.


	22. Cricket

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In case someone brakes in.... and then someone does

For the record, Maria has never  played Cricket.  Aunt Peggy had given her a cricket bat when she got her first place.  

“Just one of those things every young lady living on her own should have.  Makes a good weapon in a pinch.”  Maria thought that’s what she kept her hockey stick around for, but she takes it anyway.  Aunt Peggy has a way of knowing about these things.  

* * *

Maria comes home exhausted.  There are a few messages on her machine.  One from Aunt Angie wanting her to check in, one from her neighbor saying that there was a black cat lingering around outside, and one from one of her contacts checking in.  

She’s in bed, attempting to read something not work related when she hears it.  Someone is picking her deadbolt.  Her hockey stick is against the wall in the living room, but the cricket bat is right under the edge of the bed.  Maria grabs it and makes her way towards the front door.  

* * *

Stealthy stealthy.  Stealthy is hard to do when you’re exhausted and nearly asleep on your feet.  Still, Natasha manages to get the door open.  She’ll just sleep on Maria’s couch for a bit and then be gone in the morning…

 ** _OW!_**  Something hard hits her in the shin and then the shoulder followed by another blow to her back.  Natasha rolls with her arms raised to block the next blow.  

“IT’S ME!”  

“What the hell are you doing?”  

“Bunking on your couch for the night!  Jesus!  Since when do you play cricket?” asks Natasha as she gets up.  Maria rest the bat against her shoulder.  

“I don’t.  You know there’s this nifty thing called a doorbell?”  

“Didn’t expect you to home.  That and most people are asleep at this hour…”  

“Since when are we most people?  Come on, we’ll share the bed as always.  You know where the sleep stuff is.”  


	23. Picking a Rental

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Car chase, with Nat and Maria in a ridiculously small car. Bonus if you can work Clint into the back somehow.

“It was the first car I saw alright?!” grumbles Natasha.  In the small compact European made car, Maria sits behind the wheel with Natasha in the passenger seat and Clint shoved in the small back row in in front of the laughable space that is called a trunk.  

“You can hot wire practically any car made but you had to pick the smallest one there?” shouts Maria.  

“If you’d run faster, then _you_ could have picked the car!” throws back Natasha. 

“Hate to interrupt, but the bad guys are gaining…” interjects Clint.  The back seat is too cramped for him to even try to use his bow, so he wriggles and uses a gun Maria had handed him.  Every time the gun recoils, his elbow hits the headrest of Maria’s seat.  “Faster…. please go faster!!!!” he pleads.  He shouldn’t be able to count the dents in the bumper of the car following them.  

Natasha fires off a few shots leaning out the window but is yanked back in with one hand by Maria.  She hits her head as she falls back into her seat.  

“OW!  I had a clear shot!” complains Natasha as she rubs the back of her head. 

“We are going narrow streets and doing quick turns.  The last thing I need is you being hit by a street sign and tumbling out of the car” shouts back Maria.  It’s hard to be heard over the gun fire, the car horns, and the sound of them now rumbling down a set of stairs as pedestrians scream and try to vault out of their way. 

The GPS under the car’s cd player says “recalculating” in some language that Maria probably knows and Natasha definitely does but can’t think of with every thing going on.  Maria punches at the stupid machine, it’s calm tone grating at her nerves.  

Watching ahead, she sees exactly what they need.  

“Brace yourselves!” announces Maria.  She’s been flooring it the entire time but the small car sputters and lurches it’s way down the streets.  Still, she stomps on the gas again and hopes for a sudden boost.  Then she’s pulling the emergency brake and the car skids across the road and neatly spins into a vacant parking space.  Behind them, the car tailing them is smashed from the side by an oncoming garbage truck.  Maria doesn’t bother to look, she’s rubbing her head where it hit the window  when they stopped.  Clint and Natasha crane their necks to make sure no one emerges from the flaming wreck.  

“ _We are getting a different car_ ” growls Maria as she shoves her car door open.  Natasha’s door has been bashed in a bit and refuses to open so she crawls out Maria’s side.  The back windshield had shattered within the first minute of the fight so Clint simply hops out the trunk.  

The car gives a final last sputter and then seems to wheeze before dying altogether.  


	24. Scribbles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Legible handwriting is tricky.

“Hey Nat, how do you write ‘ _no comment_ ’ in Russian?” asks Clint.  They’re sitting in Maria’s office doing paperwork.  Natasha writes something out on a spare sheet of paper and hands it Clint.  

“Yeah…I can’t read what that says” comments Clint as he hands it back.  Natasha scowls at him and snatches the sheet back.  

“Maria!  You can read this right?” asks Natasha.  Maria has mastered tuning the often bickering pair out, so it takes a moment before Natasha gets her attention.  She looks up to see a piece of paper held out in front of her.  

“No comment” reads Maria aloud.  

“See, she had no problem reading it” argues Nat.  

“Or that’s her stance on the whole thing” counters Clint.  “Anyway, Maria doesn’t count.”  

“How’s that?”

“You two are dating so of course she knows you handwriting.  But how many other people do?”  

“I would have guessed you” says Maria.  Clint shrugs.  

“Sometimes.  I’m the guy with the bow.  If it’s important, Nat’ll share or take care of it.”  Natasha slugs him in the shoulder.  

“Well, whoever transcribes your reports seems to manage” adds Maria, and then returns to her work.  

“My handwriting is not that bad!” argues Natasha.  

“How would you know?  You text everyone and use all those smilely faces” retorts Clint.  

“What’s that supposed to mean?”  

“Well it’s not like it’s a letter, is it?”  

All Maria hears is a faint buzzing.  


	25. Wanderings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Imagine your OTP taking a walk on a cold fall night, right before it rains.

Maria does this to clear her head, these outdoor excursions, and sometimes Natasha joins her.  

In the summer and spring, Maria goes running.  As the weather gets colder, Maria slows to a walk or a stroll.  Commander Hill handles her job well, but there’s a toll.  Natasha prefers her solitude to clear her head, with the exception of Liho.  Maria goes for walks and runs.  Treadmills don’t cut it, it’s something about the fresh air.  

Usually Natasha leaves Maria to her walks so that she clear her head on her own, but it’s been a rough couple of days.  Agents have been lost, and as much as Maria commands and controls, she can’t bring them back.  So Natasha comes to make sure Maria doesn’t spend her walk brooding and kicking herself the entire time.  

Looking at the clouds, Natasha can tell it’s going to rain soon.  Maria says she can tell from a smell in the air.  Sometimes they go walking along paths but streets work just as well.  When they go along the paths sometimes they see a deer, a raccoon, some other form of wildlife.  Natasha wonders if that helps, she’s heard that it does for some people.  To see something so innocent and free in the wild.  It’s a tricky thing, because there’s hunting season or even just a car wreck and that animal can be killed just as easily.  

Maria has said that the biting cold helps clear her mind and Natasha supposes she can see that.  The carriers have an excellent air conditioning system but fresh air works better.  Natasha hopes her presence helps, because she has a hard time trying other ways to help.  It’s not that she was raised as an assassin, her ledger proves that those deaths still weigh on her, but now she kills those that are part of her mission.  Arms dealers, human traffickers, insane scientists, HYDRA agents.  It’s for the greater good.  Or at least that’s what she had told herself until HYDRA appeared.  

Natasha tries to help balance it for Maria.  They visit Angie and Peggy pretty regularly, they hangout with Sharon and Kevin when they can, visit Clint and his family.  Natasha’s pretty sure that Sharon and Kevin don’t have much of a life outside work either.  It works both ways.  Natasha makes friends with Sharon and Kevin and gets to spend time with Clint’s family.  And Maria gets to remember what she fights for as well being someone other than a Commander.  She gets to give Lila piggyback rides, teach Cooper to box (at his insistence), and play with baby Nate.  It’s a welcome and much needed change of pace.  


	26. Babysitting Duty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Babysitting the Barton kids.

Maria is holding little Nate as she gazes out the window.  He’d woken up and wouldn’t settle unless she was walking him.  She and Nat were looking after the kids while Clint and Laura enjoyed one of Tony’s grand parties.  Maria and Natasha have tired of the spotlight and welcome the chance to stay home.  

Natasha had read both Cooper and Lila a story before bed.  Maria had cooked dinner, a spaghetti recipe that Angie had taught her.  They’d brought along what they needed to make their own pasta and sauce.  Cooper and Lila had helped at every step.  Natasha guided Lila’s hands as she cut the tomatoes and chopped the spices and Maria grabbed the step stool so that Cooper could watch the sauce simmer as he stirred.  Nate happily watched and gave coos of encouragement from his high chair.  

Clean up had been messy only due to the water battle that had ensued.  A mess of suds and puddles that Natasha was just finishing mopping up.  The little ones had rushed through their baths and brushing their teeth so that Nat could tell them a story.  A story that Maria had to supervise since details of missions told to little ears might have repercussions, even if it’s only how their Dad had bounce off a roof onto an awning and then the roof of a car.  Maria knows that secrets with the Black Widow or Auntie Nat in this case, are even more sacred than piny promises, but Maria had given her word that the children would be protected.  

“Woo!  Long night but…fun” says Natasha as she collapses onto the sofa.  Maria is entranced with the small being against her shoulder.  All evening he’d wiggled and laughed and squirmed but now he sleeps soundly.  This is who she fights to protect, him and his siblings upstairs.  In more ways than one.  She protects them, like she does everyone else from alien invasions and murderous robots, but also she helps keep them hidden.  There are too many people who would take an interest in the children of the infamous Clint Hawkeye Barton.  

Maria turns to look at Natasha, who is relaxed with her eyes closed on the sofa.  She knows why Natasha is afraid of children, unsure of how to act around them or that she might corrupt them in some way.  Maria, will have to tell her again that it’s all in her head because Clint’s children adore her.  Her graduation ceremony has Natasha thinking she can’t have kids and that’s true biologically, but there are other ways.  

Maria worries that she herself wouldn’t make an ideal parent.  She brings too much of the job home with her.  She’s moody sometimes or brings things with her to finish.  She is a Commander and that’s not what children need.  She doesn’t want to be like her father.  Doesn’t want to resent a child because a bedtime story takes away from time she could be spending on an attack plan.  But Natasha says she can see Maria being a good Mom.  

Maybe one day they’ll see, but for now, they’ll volunteer for babysitting duty with this family that has adopted them as often as possible.  


	27. Against the Pack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Wilderness survival. Plane crash and wolves, + capture? Please :)

So being shot down sucks, but they lived through it.  

Stumbling and coughing as the plane continued to smoke and burn.  They manage to cut themselves free of their seats and grab what they can.  The snow is deep and it’s hard going, but they manage to get clear before the plane explodes.  

They head for the trees, whoever shot them down may go over the area looking for them.  They can’t do much about their footprints, but there’s a steady snow going and maybe there won’t be much left of their trail.  At least in the trees they’ll have more of a chance.  

Or they might have if the wolves hadn’t found them.  Natasha senses them, but Maria is the one who spots three over her shoulder.  There are four more behind Maria that are staring Natasha down.  It’s almost like telepathy, the way the two of them communicate.  At the same time, the two race for the nearby embankment and slide down a slope.  It gives them maybe a three foot head start.  The wolves easily leap it and keep pace with them.  Natasha has the lead but starts to turn back at the sound of fabric ripping.  

Maria is pinned beneath the paws of a wolf.  Maria flips herself over and already has her knife out, stabbing at the wolf.  It yelps and tries to flee but the slash across it’s throat weakens it instantly and makes it easy for Maria to kick away. Still, there’s the rest of the pack bearing down on them.  Natasha hefts a branch and swings with all her might, knocking away two of them.  Maria is on her feet and yelling for her to keep going.  As if Natasha would ever consider it. 

Natasha sees another bounding towards her and braces herself for a swing.  But the ground gives way beneath her boots and she falls backwards, tumbling head over heals in the snow until her head hits a stump and everything goes black.  

* * *

When Natasha wakes up she’s in a cell of some kind.  She rubs the back of her head as she sits up.  

“I was wondering how long you’d be out” says a voice.  It takes her a moment, but then she recognizes it as Maria’s.  

“I’m pissed at you” growls Natasha as she scoots her back to the wall.  It would seem their cells are separate.  

“Pissed at me?” asks Maria, her tone dumbfounded.  Natasha would turn to look at her, but her head is still spinning a bit.  

“How could you think I would leave you with those wolves?  What made you think I would obey that order?” says Natasha, her voice low and deadly.  

“Natasha-”

“No you are my friend and my-.  I wouldn’t leave you behind” finishes Natasha. They sit in silence for a few moments before Maria says anything.  

“Mace bomb.”  

“What?”  Now Natasha is confused and it isn’t just her head.  

“Mace bomb.  I wanted you clear before I set it off.  It’s why I can’t see due to the stinging in my eyes right now.  It took care of the wolves but not the taser prongs I was hit with” explains Maria.  

Oh.  

“Well, who are we guests of?” asks Natasha.  

“How should I know?  Burning eyes, remember?  And they weren’t a talkative bunch.  Our beacon went off though, so the others should figure out what happened soon enough.”  Natasha snorts.  

“Of the others, only Clint will be able to pick up our trail after the wolves.”  Maria nods in agreement, forgetting that Natasha can’t see her.  Damn, do her eyes sting.  They’re still watering and Maria’s given up at wiping at them.  

Her vision is getting better when they are rescued.  She feels Nat’s hand go around her arm and help guide her out.  There’s a long dark blur followed by a blinding white blur.  They must be out in the snow again.  She can hear Clint and Pietro.  She knows Wanda and Tony are here too due to their friendly bickering.  She’s strapped into a jet again and lets out a shaky breath.  

“Do your best to avoid everything down to simple turbulence, huh Clint?  Our last ride wasn’t that great” says Natasha as she gives Maria’s hand a squeeze.  Maria squeezes back and rests her head on Natasha’s shoulder.  


	28. Radio Tunes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Imagine your OTP on a long car ride. Person A changes the radio station every thirty seconds, just as Person B is starting to settle into the song playing.

Maria and Natasha are driving through New Mexico to check in with Darcy and Jane.  

The rule is the driver is focused on the road and the passenger is charge of the radio and keeping snacks available.  Except right now Natasha is driving Maria crazy.  

“ __[We will sing pretty songs about love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr6MtuesbAM)  
And we will fight if that’s what it takes  
And we won’t back down  
No we won’t shut our eyes and go to sleep”

*Click*

“ __[Well, it would’ve been](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=penvn9VL32Y)  
Could’ve been worse than you would ever know  
Oh, the dashboard melted  
But we still have the radio”

*Click*

“ __[While you’ve been saving your neck  
I’ve been breaking mine for ya’  
The power is on, the guillotine hums](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chxzDGNU88E)”

*Click*

“Will you please pick a station already?” begs Maria.  

“I trying to see if you know every song on the radio” comments Natasha.  

“Yeah, well now I have three different songs stuck in my head” grumbles Maria. 

“When did you start singing?” asks Natasha, honestly curious.  

“Back with Aunt Peggy.  Sometimes she’d drive me up to visit my Dad or take me, Sharon, and Kevin to DC to sight see.  Although back then it was more of the Andrews Sisters and Doris Day.  Can’t go wrong with Billie Holiday either.”  

“I’m trying to picture it… but just can’t” says Natasha shaking her head and looking at Maria with a sweet smile.  

“You want to hear me sing [Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy Of Company B](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qafnJ6mRbgk), I will” says Maria with a grin.  

“You still like jazz?” asks Natasha.  

“I like lots of music but if you grab my ipod, it has a song called [Evil Man Blues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b4B2SP8Jt0)on it by The Candy Shop Boys.  Sharon sent it to me before we left and I love it.”  Reaching into the bag back between the seats, Natasha comes up with the device and moments later the song is coming through the speakers.  

“Interesting.  I like it.”  

Maria’s ipod becomes the source of their music for the rest of the trip and every so often Natasha makes Maria prove she still knows all the words.  Sometimes she even joins in.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs: 
> 
> Tilly and the Wall - The Ice Storm, Big Gust and You  
> Modest Mouse - Dashboard  
> Florence + the Machine - Make Up Your Mind  
> Andrews Sisters - Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B  
> The Candy Shop Boys - Evil Man Blues


	29. Troublesome Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: I’m your bodyguard while you’re on this important trip because you’re the ambassador of fucking Hungary or something, but I fucked up and got us kicked out of Parliament or whatever, but like, forever, so I’m just really, really sorry (also I may have a crush on you or whatever)

Maria is so mad she isn’t speaking.  That’s fine.  Natasha doesn’t regret what she did.  It might put a crimp in future negotiations.  

“He was rude and crude and needed a reality check.  You are second in command of a clandestine organization and a key person in what that organization does.  He made a mockery of you and was dismissive” says Natasha, breaking the silence.  

“Which I’ve handled time and time again.  It’s not the first time it’s happened but now we’ll have trouble every time some idiot goes to their non extradition country” growls Maria.  She slams the door as Natasha gets into the passenger side.  

“You shouldn’t have to deal with that.  Your rank counts for something.  Fury sent you personally.  It means a lot” continues Natasha as she pulls out.  Maria’s face softens a bit from her hard glare.  

“Thank you.  But it didn’t merit breaking his hand” sighs Maria as she pinches at her nose.  Fixing this will take more than a gift basket.  Maria eyes Natasha as she drives.  Natasha was here as her bodyguard and up until their host got offensive, she had done the role perfectly.  She’d stayed in the background and was seen but not heard.  Then as they were leaving, Natasha shook his hand and broke it.  Normally, it’s the type of incident that the former assassin simply shakes off, having been on the receiving end herself more than once.  Why had this gotten to her?  

“Something you wanna tell me, Agent Romanoff?” asks Maria carefully.  Had she missed some sign of a threat?  

Natasha is doing her best to not panic.  Her eyes dart to the mirror, this time not looking for possible tails but to make sure her mask is firmly in place.  Does she know?  Had she been that obvious?  When it comes to emotions Natasha understands them, but has a habit of putting her foot in her mouth.  Especially around Maria Hill.  

“About what?” asks Natasha, managing to keep her voice even.  She can feel Maria looking at her.  Thankfully, she can control her blush.  Maria continues to look at her for a few more seconds and then turns to gaze out the window.  That was close _._  

“Nick won’t like this.  How am I going to explain this?” mutters Maria to herself. Natasha glances at her and can see the wheels turning, but why?  What happened is fairly straight forward.  Maria seems to give a mental shrug and tips her head back against the head rest.  “We’ll figure it out later.  The man was an ass.”  Natasha is puzzled as to why Maria would cover for her.  She would ask, but Maria’s phone begins to ring.  Maria answers and Natasha winces as she hears Nick’s tone.  

“It doesn’t matter.  No, he invited us just to mock us, he was never going to agree to anything.  He was an asshole Nick and he took things a step too far and Natasha reacted.  Maybe a bit too harshly, but this guy felt we were beneath him and made it obvious from the moment we entered the room.  Yeah.  See you when we get back.”  With that, Maria ends the call.  

Natasha gives her a look while they’re stopped at a light.  “What?  It’s more or less what happened” says Maria.  Maria doesn’t usually do that sort of thing.  Put her neck on the line for anyone else but Nick that is.  Granted this isn’t exactly a high profile incident or altering a file, but it’s still something Maria wouldn’t do for just anybody.  Is it possible Maria feels the same?  

“So where should we go for dinner?” asks Maria.  Natasha will have to do something about her feelings soon but a dinner is a start.  


	30. Hypothetically

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Pietro is tired of watching Maria and Natasha dance around what’s between them. He’s going to help but not get directly in the middle of things. Just ask a question or two, that’s all.

This has to end.  The entire time he’s known them it’s been obvious that they have feelings for each other.  Maria looks after them and makes sure they settle into the Avengers okay and Natasha (along with Clint) makes sure they’re okay in the field and keep up with their training.  Put them in the same room though, and it’s all sorts of awkward.  

Pietro spots Maria sitting and eating lunch with Kevin in the lounge and makes his way over. 

“Hey, Maria?  Can I ask you a question?”  Maria turns to look at him and smiles, gesturing at a chair.  

“Sure.  What can I help you with?”  

“Hypothetically, what if I liked someone?”  Maria pauses in taking a bite from her sandwich.  

“Wouldn’t this be a question better suited for Kevin here?” asks Maria delicately.  

“Right, because I have such a great dating history” replies Kevin as he balls up his wrapper.  He seems to know what’s going on and gets up to leave.  He puts a bit of extra pep in his step when he sees Sharon and Natasha enter the area above the lounge.  

“I have a feeling you’ve had a few dates before” says Maria with a raised eyebrow as she helps herself to her chips.  

“Yeah, well, Wanda says racing to other countries and getting people gifts is a little forward.  Along with most of my usual approach.  So, I’d like to do this right.  Or at least better” says Pietro with a shrug.  

“Anyone one I know?” asks Maria.  Pietro had seen Natasha and Sharon walk in as well as Natasha trying to listen in.  It suddenly dawns on him that it might look like he’s interested in Maria, and the last thing he wants is to be on Natasha’s bad side.  Before he can clarify anything, Maria continues.  “It wouldn’t have to do with a certain young agent that happens to work in one of your regular field teams, would it?” pushes Maria.  Well, damn.  Maria really doesn’t miss anything does she?  There was an agent that had caught his eye, but this was about Maria and Natasha.  She could work as a cover though, and hey, he’d take notes for later.  

“So what do I do?” he asks.  Sharon seems to have noticed Natasha listening too.  

“Well, meals together are always good.  But with our schedules it’s a bit hard to make reservations some place, much less fit in a burger at a diner.  Start small.  Maybe offer her a bottle of water and share some trail mix on the flight back after a mission” offers Maria.  

“Trail mix?  You sure you aren’t being biased just because it’s your favorite treat?  I mean, what if she doesn’t like trail mix?”  

“Everyone loves trail mix” dismisses Maria with a waive of her chip.  “But you can’t rush things.  You two have to be friends first” adds Maria.  Pietro meets Natasha’s eyes for a second but then looks away before Maria can notice.  Also because the warning look she was giving him was scary.  

“So, hypothetically, say we’ve known each other for a while.  What if she thinks I’m just being a nice guy?  Just a good friend, and doesn’t think I like her that way?” continues Pietro.  Maria takes another bite of her sandwich while looking at him closely.  He does his best not to swallow nervously.  She knows something is up but isn’t sure what yet.  Pietro sees Sharon back up though and point at Natasha.  Maria catches it in the reflection of her soda can, Natasha missing it since she’s so engrossed in the conversation.  

“Well, then you might have to step things up a bit” says Maria, her body relaxing into her chair.  Sharon pokes Natasha in her side and the red head gives her a withering glare.  

“What, offer a trail mix that includes chocolate?”  Maria balls up her napkin after wiping her hands and throws it at his head.  

“No.  But chocolate is going the right way.  Maybe make things a bit more formal.  That way she knows it’s more than just hanging out.”  

“Like on of Stark’s parties?”  

“Not necessarily.  Tony invites everyone to those, so it could be seen as still just hanging out.  Maybe some place with just the two of you.  Pizza and a movie in your quarters type of thing?  That way it’s at least private.”  

Maria mentally scratches that idea off her list because she and Nat have done that loads of times but she still never gotten up the courage to tell Nat how she feels.  Right now though, she is also trying to think of appropriate revenge.  Hypothetically my ass.  Is this just Pietro or is Sharon in on this little advice scheme too?  It’ll be interesting to see what Nat does though.  On the other hand, maybe _she_ should be the one to step up her game….


	31. New Hobby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: You’re so stoic or deadpan most of the time but when your get flustered your face lights up red like a beacon and it’s so cute.

Clint has told her to stop being so mean but Natasha really can’t help herself.  Who knew that the ever contained and stoic Maria Hill blushed so brightly?  It’s the kind of thing that she wants to see again, just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.  It wasn’t.  Maria Hill blushes bright red like a traffic light.  But only for Natasha, points out Pietro.  Interesting.  

The whole thing started by accident.  Steve had said something and Natasha had simply retorted “that’s why Fury reserves the decisions and sexy suits for the smart people, right Maria?”  She just said it without thinking, it was just the usual team banter.  Except that Clint’s poorly hidden grin had her turning to see a tongue tied Maria Hill.  That was a first.  So was that adorable bright red blush.  

Maria is a curious person.  Tony’s attempts to make her blush just get him an eye roll and Steve’s bumbling gets him a small smile.  But it’s Natasha that makes her bright red.  Nat isn’t crass, she simply… points out the obvious.  For instance, when it comes to Steve’s idea to put Scott Lang in undercover, Natasha just pointed out that their mark was more likely to be attracted to Maria’s skill set and gorgeous figure rather than a tacky thief.  But, who wouldn’t?  

It then becomes Natasha’s favorite thing to do.  The added bonus is when Maria bites her lip to try and contain her smile.  That plus the blush makes Nat’s day.  


	32. Personal Space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: You have no idea what personal space is and it’s really distracting when your face is two inches away from mine, what if i turn my head and accidentally kiss you.

Natasha has a brilliant mind and Maria enjoys working with her.  It’s nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of and work things through with when it comes to planning.  The only problem is that Natasha seems to not understand the words “personal space.”  Granted Maria’s office isn’t exactly spacious and they work closely, so Maria can understand the occasional brushing of elbows. 

The brushing of Natasha’s cheek against hers wasn’t expected though.  Usually, Natasha makes herself comfortable on the couch in her office or in the chair across from her, but sometimes she comes around so that she can see something on Maria’s computer while she explains it or to look something up.  Then Natasha is pushed up against her back and leaning over her shoulder to type.  It takes everything in her not to look, but Maria vows not to be yet another agent who ogles Natasha.   

Clint says it means that Natasha likes her, trusts her, not that she’d asked his opinion.  Maria supposes she should be flattered that Natasha likes and trusts her, since not many people achieve that title, and she would be if it wasn’t all so damn distracting.  She finds herself wanting to know exactly what color Natasha’s eyes are.  She catches herself wanting to turn her head before Natasha has moved back.  Worst of all, she invites Natasha in when she just drops by.  

So their hands brush while they go over files, Natasha wipes a bit of mustard from the corner of Maria’s mouth when they break for lunch.  It all seems so juvenile but Maria finds herself leaning into Natasha’s touch.   


	33. Train Wreck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Nat, just focus on my voice"

You know, for some reason Maria had felt safe in the dining car on the Pendolino train on the Czech Railways.  She really should have known better.  They were traveling from Prague to Austria and figured a train ride would be better than a jet, let them fly a bit more beneath the radar.  It just so happens that there’s some foreign dignitary on the train who has caught the eye of one their enemies as well.  What are the odds, really?  

Their train car lurches forward and Natasha flies from her seat and into the food cart.  The steaming entrees and soups must have burned.  Turns out they had just been approaching a tunnel.  The explosion of the first car reverberates down the line and their car lurches off the tracks and onto it’s side.  There are screams and blood and smoke.  

Maria detangles herself from where she was half thrown under the table between their seats.  Her foot is briefly caught beneath the seat, but she pulls it free.  She searches the area for Natasha, and finds her quickly.  After the food cart, Natasha had been thrown on down the aisle.  Aside from having her head smack the window with a solid thunk, Maria is alright for the most part.  She’s got a few cuts from glass and bruises from fallen luggage, but is okay.  She climbs over the high back seats to get over to Natasha.  She should be seeing that everyone else is safely evacuated, but all she can think of is Natasha.  She gives the order for everyone to evacuate and get as far from the train as possible as she crouches down next to Nat.  

“Nat?  Natasha?  Sweetie?  Give me a sign if you can hear me…” coaxes Maria gently as she carefully pulls Natasha out from under the cart.  She has to push roll on luggage off the top of the cart so that Natasha can be moved.  That’s when she sees it.  Nat’s leg wasn’t supposed to positioned that way.  Judging by the steady trickle of blood going down the side of Nat’s face, a concussion is probably a safe bet too.  Possibly broken ribs.  

“Ouch” says Natasha weakly, but Maria is flooded with relief.  

“Okay, we have to get out of here and I don’t think you can use your leg so I’m going to carry you.  I need you to help me with this though” explains Maria as she improvises a splint for Nat’s leg.  She breaks off the extending handle off someone’s Samsonite rolling luggage and cuts a few seat belts to tie it all together.  It should be sturdy enough and hold for now.  She then pulls Natasha up and sets her against the seats as she pushes out the emergency window.  Since the car is on it’s side, they’ll have to climb out the top to get out the window.  She pulls Natasha’s arms around her neck and only when Natasha has a good grip does she start to climb.  “Nat, just focus on my voice while I get us out of here, okay?”  Natasha murmurs something and then tucks her face against Maria’s shoulder.  

Once they’re outside, they wait with the others for rescue.  It’ll come a bit faster for them since Maria had activated the distress signal on her phone out of instinct after the crash.  She knows protocol.  But protocol should have made the other passengers her priority once she knew Natasha was okay.  She should have gone car by car and cleared them of passengers.  Except with Natasha in her arms she couldn’t think about anything else.  Anyway, it seems like her order had gotten people moving and they’d helped each other.  Natasha nuzzles closer and Maria tightens her hold.  There’s a chirp from her phone and Maria reluctantly removes a hand from around Nat to check it.  Quin jet ETA: two minutes.  


	34. Past Rearing It's Ugly Head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blackhill almost breakup

“I made a judgement call!” shouts Natasha.  

“It wasn’t a decision for you to make!” retorts Maria.  Clint wishes he was anywhere else right now, but thankfully it’s just the two of them in the jet.   

“If you had known the circumstances, you would have pulled me out” argues Natasha.  The only good part of this is that it is happening over their cell phones and not on comms, otherwise Clint would have to go and erase this conversation from the records later and threaten anyone listening in.  

“I would have made a decision based on the facts!  You know that, or don’t you trust me?” barks Maria.  Natasha’s answer is silence and it makes Clint internally wince.  “You know what?  I can’t do this anymore.  If I’m going to be with someone I need them to trust me” says Maria.  

“Do you trust me?” scoffs Natasha.  There’s a pause that makes a sick feeling in her stomach.  

“I thought you already knew that” says Maria and then hangs up.  

Natasha throws her phone back into her bag.  Clint says nothing.  The mission had ties to Red Room and rather than checking in and updating Maria, Natasha had opted to proceed with the mission.  It had been a close call that resulted in her and Clint being more than a little banged up, but they’d gotten out alive.  Natasha had been certain that Maria would pull her from the mission at the mention of Red Room.  She’d just been so sure.  

* * *

Natasha is brooding at how massively she screwed things up.  There’s a knock on her door, but she’s so lost in thought that she doesn’t hear it.  

“If you had said you could handle it, then I would have trusted you.  I trust your judgement.  No one knows better than you what to expect from Red Room, and no one knows better how to follow your lead than Clint.  I might have pulled you if you were with Steve or Tony, they can’t anticipate what you’re going to do like Clint and might have gotten in your way.  But you past is just that.  You are Black Widow in code name and skill set but you are no longer what they made you.  I believe that.  I love you, but I need to know that you won’t shut me out or lie to me just because you’re worried how I’ll react” explains Maria.  And Natasha understands, she does.  Everything Maria said makes sense.  

“It wasn’t…. that wasn’t why we didn’t check in.  I mean it was but…. To make us Black Widows, Red Room broke us.  I have so much more to lose now, I’m not as strong as I was before… not by Red Room standards at least.  I couldn’t be sure that I would come back to you the same as I left.  That they didn’t have something up their sleeve.  I was going to make sure Clint got out, but it could have been anything.  A girl I had grown up and trained with could have attacked us.  In training sometimes they would have us kill the weaker ones.  I don’t know… I was scared.”  

“I can’t say I understand completely, but I know that sometimes our past haunts us, you more than most.  But as your Commander, my job is the mission, just like yours is.  When you get back though, I am your girlfriend and then yes, I’ll be concerned but I still trust you.  If you need my hoodie and to snuggle in bed, that’s fine.  If you need a steady supply of tacos, I can do that.  I’m here to help, but only one of us knows what’s going on in your head.  I trust you and love you, no matter which version of you comes off that jet” repeats Maria.  Natasha launches herself into Maria’s arms and Maria’s arms are instantly around her, holding her close.  

“I love you.  And I do trust you.  I’m sorry” whispers Natasha into Maria’s collar bone.  Maria kisses her forehead.  

“So what do you need?  How can I help?” whispers back Maria.  

“Just… hold me for now?”  

“As long as you want.”  


	35. Puzzling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nat coming home hurt from mission

Natasha comes awake slowly.  Her leg is a dull ache and her arm only hurts if she tries to move her hand or fingers.  At least it’s her non dominant hand.  She feels the scab on her forehead pull as she twitches her nose.  

Maria is asleep in the chair next to her bed.  Why is that?  Yes, Natasha will admit to having feelings for the woman, but aside from putting her out, anesthesia wouldn’t make her loopy and confess anything.  So why is the Commander here?  Had they screwed up?  Natasha is confident that it isn’t due to a medical reason since she always heals up fine.  She notes the various coffee cups on the small table next to Maria.  She’s been here a while.  Natasha knows she came in pretty rough looking but she’s fine now.  Except she’s so tired.  

The next time she wakes up, Maria is gone but there’s another coffee cup in the trash can.  

* * *

A few hours later, Natasha finds Maria in an empty room doing a jigsaw puzzle of all things.  

“You aren’t supposed to be out of bed” comments Maria without looking up.  She simply reaches out and picks up another piece and puts it in place.  

“My medical stays never last long” replies Natasha with a smirk.  It falters though when Maria doesn’t respond.  “It’s too quiet and… lemon scented” adds Natasha.  

“Sit.  You shouldn’t put weight on that leg” says Maria as she pushes out a chair for her.  Natasha sits across from her.  The table is covered in tiny puzzle pieces.  Natasha looks around for the box.  

“Where’s the box?  How can you tell what the picture is?” asks Natasha.  

“That’s cheating”

“What?”  

“Looking at the box.  It’s cheating.  You figure it out by putting the pieces together” answers Maria.  Natasha gives her a long look.  

“That’s how you put things together, isn’t it?  Missions, intel, us.”  

“You’re more than what’s in your file.  For instance, it doesn’t say how you’re still conscious with all those pain killers in your system.”  

“Why a puzzle?” asks Natasha, trying to ignore the fact that her head does feel a little fuzzy.  

“I find them relaxing.  Aunt Peggy and Angie send them or Sharon picks one up for me.  All the pieces are there and all the pieces have a place.  At least where the puzzle is concerned, everything makes sense.”  Natasha can see that.  In their lives they sort of take it as it comes and it leads a whole lot of things unknown.  Anything from where an attack is coming from to when there will be time to grab a bite.  She has a feeling that for Maria, it’s usually more coffee than actual food.  

The question has been bugging her so she’s just going to ask.  

“Were you worried about me?”  Maria’s hand pauses in mid air with a piece in hand.  

“When you came in, there looked to be more blood than you on that gurney.  Clint was saying you’d be okay, but more to convince himself I think.  He’s fine, as you know.  You made sure he was.  You do that a lot.” says Maria, not looking up.  Natasha bristles.  

“And what’s that?”  

“Looking out for the rest of the team at the expense of yourself.  What are we supposed to do if something happens to you?”  That gives Natasha pause.  Maybe she’d been wrong… maybe Maria didn’t know…  “What am I supposed to do Nat?  You’re one of my best friends-”

“You have Kevin and Sharon-” Maria waives a dismissive hand.  

“They’re family.”  

“You have Pepper.”  

“Pepper is a good friend, but she doesn’t understand what we go through.  She’s not you Nat.  You mean a lot to me.”  Natasha has a feeling that Maria hadn’t meant to disclose that much, so for now they simply work on the puzzle. 

But she will be coming back to that at some point.  


	36. Growls - Of Stomachs and Commanders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My computer has just deleted my final report for the fifth time and I’m on the verge of a mental breakdown so you’re trying to get me to take a break but you don’t understand I have deadlines + stressed maria

Was that a growl?  Natasha pauses mid stride.  She’s almost certain she just heard a growl.  There it is again!  It seems to be coming from Maria’s office.  She gives a soft knock on the door.  

“There a dog in here?” asks Natasha as she peeks around the door.  There, behind her desk, sits Maria Hill.  Growling at her computer.  

“If this was Stark, I’m going to kill him” growls Maria.  Natasha arches an eyebrow.  

“What’s going on?” she asks tentatively.  

“Every time I am nearly finish my report the stupid thing deletes it!  This is the tenth time!”  Natasha notes the coffee mug on the desk and wonders when the last time Maria ate something.  

“I’l make you a deal, you have a bite with me, and I’ll see what I can do” offers Natasha.  

“Nat-”

“Please?”  Maria lets out a sigh and Natasha holds back a smile as she sees Maria counting to ten in her head.  Then she gets up and follows Nat to the lounge.  There Natasha draws out the process of making sandwiches.  She takes her time slicing the tomato and lettuce, grabbing the cheese and ham, spreading the mustard and mayo evenly on the bread.  She grabs a bag of chips too and pours some on to each plate.  

While she works, she sees Maria decompress little by little.  Maria works out the tension in her shoulders, rotating her neck back and forth and side to side.  Natasha knows she could work out every knot, but that might be just a tad too forward.  

She walks over and sets a plate in front of Maria.  Maria bites into it and it’s followed by a moan.  Natasha hides her smile behind her own sandwich.  

“So, it’s been deleting everything or just your reports?” asks Natasha.  

“Hmm?  Oh.  Yeah, whenever I’m nearly through” comments Maria in between bites.  Looks like she was right about the last time Maria ate.  

“And you don’t think it was me?” asks Natasha with a smirk.  Maria gives her a look.  

“You would have used more than one method instead of the same old trick over and over” says Maria before taking another bite.  Natasha finishes her own sandwich and pushes her chips towards Maria after hers disappear.  

Eventually, they go back to Maria’s office and computer.  “So what are you working on anyway?” asks Natasha as her fingers fly across the keyboard.  

“Phil’s reports.  Since he’s off dealing with that situation in New Mexico, I get stuck with all the reports he didn’t finish” grumps Maria.  Natasha finds her pout adorable.  

“There you go.  A glitch is all.  The way Phil keeps his files is all over the place so it’s no wonder things went screwy.  Especially with all the odd things we get sent.  Well, I fixed things on your end at least” explains Natasha.  

“Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!” exclaims Maria while giving Natasha a hug.  An unexpected hug.  Natasha vacates her chair and lets Maria get back to it.  “And Nat?”  

“Hmm?”  

“Thanks for the sandwich.  We should do that again…soon.”  

“Sure.  When you’re done with your reports, sound good?”

“Sounds good” replies Maria.  Natasha throws her a wink and doesn’t miss the faint blush that appears on Maria’s cheeks.  


	37. Needle in a Haystack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha being compromised an Maria having to get her back

“Maria, Natasha’s been compromised.”

Maria feels like the wind has been knocked out of her.  She’s in shock.  Then she’s enraged.  Phil was supposed to make sure this didn’t happen.  

“What do you mean compromised?!”  

“Maria-”  

“Where was the last point of contact?” growls Maria.  Phil rattles off the coordinates in her ear.  

“EVERYBODY IN!” shouts Maria.  Pietro and Clint quickly pile into the SUV.  

“What’s happened?” asks Clint as Maria peels out.  He manages to tug on his seat belt, and that’s his first sign something is really wrong.  

“Phil’s fool proof plan backfired and Natasha’s been compromised.”  

“How far are we?” asks Pietro.  Natasha has looked out for him and his sister and if he can help, he’d like to.  

“We’re twenty minutes out” says Maria.  

“Should I-”

“No, it will give them a heads up that back up is coming” explains Maria.  They get there in fifteen.  Maria sends Clint and Pietro out to take on the groups following Nat, but is adamant that they stay together.  Given the intel Natasha was sent after, the attackers could be armed with all sorts of nasty surprises.  Maria searches the back streets as fast as she can but it’s useless.  She parks the car and double checks that her gun is loaded and takes off on foot.  

She knows, or at least hopes that she knows, how Natasha would escape.  She’d scatter.  No direct path, zigzagging and leaving decoys with pieces of her disguise where ever she can.  Maria spots the scarf Nat had been wearing at the corner of some public stairs.  Maria turns and weaves between back and side streets.  

They literally run into each other.  

There’s no time for greetings, they’re already taking fire.  Theres also the whoosh of Pietro coming through and the zing of Clint’s arrows but Natasha is already bleeding.  Maria has a firm grip on Natasha’s hand and pulls her up when she stumbles.  She is getting Natasha out of here.  Maria fires ahead of them. taking out waiting attackers as they make their way to the car.  Clint jumps into the drivers seat and Maria hauls Natasha into the back.  The bullets ping off the side of the car.  Maria is pressing a bandage to Natasha’s arm.  It’s not as bad as it first looked but it’s still bleeding.  

“Should we update Phil?” asks Clint.  

“Why?  Stiuation is over.  Natasha is safe” says Pietro, taking a long drink from a water bottle.  Maria smirks.  

“Just tell him we’re on way back” says Maria.  

“Sorry” whispers Natasha.  She knows she made Maria worry.  They were on the other side of town finishing the clean up of things.  

“Not your fault” whispers back Maria. Pietro hands Natasha a bottle of water.  

This time, they managed to bring her back safe.  


	38. A New Introduction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Martasha at the Barton's farmhouse

This is weird.  Or at least it feels that way for Maria.  This is the first time she’s been to the farm that hasn’t been business related.  This is more of a Natasha bringing someone home type deal and Maria is feeling all the nerves that go along with it.  

Laura is welcoming as always and the kids are adorable.  Apparently, Steve told Cooper to ask her about boxing.  It helps put Maria at ease.  Lila is suddenly shy at meeting someone so important to Natasha, and only looks at Maria from around the bannister or from behind one of her parents.  Nate is a little bundle of movement that Maria has to keep her eye one otherwise he’s wriggled away and crawled half way across the room.  He’s done that to her twice now.  

Maria can’t help but look back at Natasha every so often.  She’s distracted by the children but she worries.  Clint knows her, jokes with her, and Laura always offers her a warm cup of coffee.  But she is still Commander Hill.  She’s trying to just be Maria, but it’s harder than she’d imagined.  How does she show these people she’s a good person?  How much Natasha means to her?  

* * *

Natasha just smiles.  She can practically feel the nervousness coming off of Maria in waves.  It’s comforting since up until now, she was afraid it was just her.  On the drive there, she could tell Maria was reviewing the protection measures in place, probably to settle her nerves.  It’s a different side of Maria.  She’s usually so confident.  This is important to her.  Clint has already given his nod of approval weeks ago and Laura likes her too.  They can tell Maria cares about her although her nervousness is a pretty good indicator.  Watching her with Lila is adorable.  She doesn’t push and try to force Lila out, instead she smiles at her and waves.  Eventually, Lila comes out of hiding and sits next to Maria.  Once she’s over come her shyness though, it looks like Natasha might have competition for Maria’s affections.  Nate loves everyone, but has a habit of grabbing the long strands of Maria’s hair.  Something that Maria doesn’t seem to mind and gently coaxes him to let go and gives him a toy.  Cooper would have her teaching him boxing, but Maria was adamant that he ask his mom first.  

Maria fits in just fine and by the end of the night, her nerves have settled and the kids are demanding a bedtime story from her.  

Natasha was never worried though.  Whether on the job or not, Maria seems to fit into her life just fine.   


	39. Regular Trespass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria has a regular intruder

Maria comes home to her apartment and immediately takes note of the scattered belongings and the sound of the shower.  

“Hey, hope you don’t mind me if I wash off here” calls Natasha.  Maria smirks.  

“Go for it.”  She’s gotten used to Natasha breaking in to her place now.  The first few times, Maria nearly shot her or bashed her head in.  Now, it’s a comfort.  Usually, her apartment is just a place to crash when Nick orders her to take some time off.  

Even then, she didn’t spend much time here.  She’d go out for runs, visit Peggy and Angie, or visit the rest of the Carter family.  Lunch with Pepper, a dinner with Victoria, catching up with Rhodey.  Anything to keep her hand in things but also keep her from being in her place.  Maria is too used to being on the move.  Any cherished possessions are kept in her old room at Aunt Peggy’s.  This apartment is just another place to crash and just as impersonal as any hotel suite.  

“Orange blossom body wash?  Hmm.  You need a better loofa by the way” calls Natasha.  Maria smiles.  At least that’s what Maria’s apartment was until Natasha started breaking in.  Personally, she’s more of a whiskey girl but she keeps vodka on hand for the red head.  

Natasha would come in like a whirlwind (once Maria got used to the intrusion and wasn’t about to shoot her) and left things everywhere.  Maria picks up the hoodie and boots that Natasha has left on her way to the bathroom.  She notes that the hoodie is one of her own.  The doorbell rings and Maria pulls a twenty to pay for whatever takeout Natasha has ordered for them.  Somehow, Nat seems to know whenever Maria will be home and only shows up then.  

Natasha comes out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel and surrounded by steam.  It’s how Maria likes to see her.  Relaxed and at ease.  

“Gonna go snag some pajamas” says Nat before retreating to her room.  Maria had bought some in Natasha’s size but Nat insists on wearing hers.  They make her look adorably small.  Natasha comes back out as Maria is putting the pizza onto plates.  

Her life has changed now that the small red head has inserted herself into her life.  Changed for the better.  


	40. Negotiations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Maria is compromised.

Natasha hadn’t liked anything about this from the beginning.  It screamed potential trap, both she and Maria had seen it.  

It was meeting of various foreign dignitaries to discuss potential global threats.  An update as to HYDRA’s movements, other potential threats, and suggestions as to how to defend against them.  Usually this was done through the WOC, but after SHIELD’s fall and their deaths, Phil said that an in person update would go a long way to build trust.  

Natasha had offered to be a part of Maria’s protection detail but he’d said that he’d needed her elsewhere.  Besides, he was confident that with all the dignitaries personal security along with the SHIELD agents in place, Maria would be fine.  

Except as of half an hour ago, Maria Hill is unaccounted for and presumed missing.  

Everything had happened fast and on live television.  

There was a procession of armored cars making their way into the building where the meeting was to take place.  Either a missile or some kind of bomb had gone off and sent one to the cars rocketing into the air in an explosion of fire.  Natasha had tapped into the comms and while she and Clint were at their assigned post, the listened to everything unfold.  The car that exploded was right in front of Maria’s.  

Clint is already climbing down from his perch.  He knows he and Natasha are going in.  He steps up his pace to keep up with Nat’s sprint.  They can see the smoke from where they are.  He lets Phil know they’re on the move and then changes the channel to his comms.  Natasha has already done the same and is behind the wheel.  

They’re moving faster than Clint would have thought possible on these streets, but then Nat drives like an Egyptian cabbie.  They might not have put a name on what’s between them, but he knows Maria is important to Natasha.  He’s picked up Natasha from Maria’s place more than once.  Nat never stays the night.  But it isn’t just that.  Maria looks after everyone under her command, the Avengers especially, but aside from himself he thinks she may be the only one who really understands Natasha.  

Clint turns his head as they go past the wreckage.  Apparently a chain reaction had ensued when the flaming car had landed on Maria’s.  It didn’t look good.  

“She wouldn’t still be here.  She would have bailed out the minute the explosion happened” states Natasha.  There is absolute certainty in her voice that Clint doesn’t dispute put he knows there’s a slim chance she got out in time.  Then again, Maria didn’t become Nick’s right hand just by sitting at a desk.  

Natasha scans the streets and then frustrated, comes to a lurching stop and abandons the car.  Clint hurries to follow after her, getting out his bow and extending it to full length.  He hops to the rooftops and covers Nat from above. 

Natasha is cursing in her head.  She should have told Phil to shove his orders and gone with Maria.  Except Maria knew something was coming and would have been prepared too.  That’s how she knows Maria got out of the mangled wreck that was her car.  She pauses in a four way stop.  She had to think.  Think like Maria.  Maria, who believed in always having a contingency plan.  More than one.  Where would she go?  Industrial areas.  They offer more cover and more opportunities to lose a tail.  She gives a whistle and when it’s echoed, she knows Clint is right behind her.  

She takes off at a sprint through the open market and turning past open shops.  She looks for any sigh that Maria was there.  It’s the little things.  She’d turn at shop that had something she could use, not a restaurant.  The scarf vendor.  A quick way to alter your appearance.  She makes her way toward what looks like a distribution warehouse and is at the entrance when she hears gun fire.  There are two distinctly different cries of pain.  Male cries of pain.  Natasha smirks.  That’s her girl.  She knows she’s getting close when she hears Clint release an arrow.  She’s tempted to rush in and find Maria, but knows that’ll only get her shot.  She carefully makes her way down shadowy aisles.  She switches her gun to her left hand and gets ready to brace herself against an incoming blow when she comes face to face with Maria, gun in one hand and knife in the other.  They both let out a sigh of relief but it’s short lived as an attacker darts around the edge of an aisle and takes a shot at them.  Maria lets out a cry of pain and Natasha catches as she stumbles and begins to fall.  The bullet hit her in the thigh.  An arrow sails by at the same time Natasha fires two off.  It’s then that Natasha notices that Maria already is sporting a few injuries.  The back of her dress pants and shoes have faint traces of soot and there are cuts to Maria’s face and the back and side of her neck.  She’d gotten clear of the explosion but not fast enough to avoid debris.  There’s a flesh wound on her other arm from a shot that had been too close.  

Carefully, they get Maria back to the vehicle, but they’re still under fire for a ways.  There’s the constant sound of Clint’s arrow along with Natasha and Maria firing off a few shots.  Maria has a quick grasp of their set up and tells Clint what to look for from above while they take on the ones close by.  

When they get back to their outpost and are waiting for an evac, Maria gets on the radio to Phil.  

“Told you” she says, and leaves it at that.  Let Phil deal with the fall out, that’ll be punishment enough.  Natasha refuses to leave Maria’s side.  While she gets herself seen to by a medic, she flashes Natasha a weak smile.  She’d had a plan, but she knew Natasha wouldn’t be far behind.  Clint gives her a nod when she gives him a smile too and leaves them to check on the status of their jet.  It’s then that she finally lets her head rest against Nat’s shoulder.  


End file.
